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Three In A Row

By Andrew Black

Heading back home after a disastrous 3 day blank at Airman Pit Beds., the conditions were spot on for catching, but all I managed was one dropped take on a roach deadbait, maybe I'll try live-baits next time. I decided to drop in on a local lake on the way back, for a one-nighter. The forecast was good with temperatures expected to reach 18 degrees, and very humid, with patches of rain. Ideal catfish catching conditions. Arriving at the lake, I proceeded to try and catch a few live baits, easier said than done, but I did manage to catch a few gudgeon, perch and chub from the river, and a few bait-robbing bleak, which make the worst live-baits you can catch, they live about 10 seconds on the hook and most die before you even get to that stage.

Having spoken to the bailiff to see if any cats had been caught lately, his response was that the only ones caught where at the fish-in 5 weeks ago. This did not worry me too much as I know that no one on this water fishes for cats anyway, and if no one is fishing for them, they won't get caught. I set up on a grassy swim on the west bank, and after a plumb around I found a few good spots to present a bait, I set the rods up, the left hand rod was set up for free lining, swivel, 35lb Quicksilver and a Z60 size 2 Catfish hook, I baited it with double sandeel, and flicked it into a gully in the margin, about 10 yards out, where it shelves from 8ft to 11ft before rising again. Then followed 6 small chunks of pike flesh, scattered around the hook bait. The middle rod was set up for live-baiting, with a 2oz running lead tied to a run-ring, then a large bored bead and swivel tied to a 35lb Quicksilver, a large polyball fixed in place with float stops, and lastly a size 2 Gold Label

Penetrator hook,(which are ideal if you are using small live-baits because they are strong but have a thin diameter, and a very small barb, thus minimising the damage to the live-bait when hooking it, if you use a hook too big or wide, you can kill a perfectly good live-bait, just by hooking it). This rod was baited with two 3inch Gudgeon(one of my favourite live-baits) and cast about 20 yards out to an 8ft deep area at the back of a thick weed bed, then I catapulted 10 of the now-dead bleak around it, after poking them with a baiting needle first, to pop their swim bladders (otherwise they float). The right hand rod was also set up on a live-bait rig, the same as the one described above, but this time baited with a small perch. This was cast about 15 yards out to a weedbed, in 11ft of water, with sandeel sections thrown around it.

By now it was about 8pm, and I'd just got the brolly up when it started raining, light at first, then the heavens opened, and the next hour and a half where spent brolly-bound. As the rain subsided, with the sun slowly setting, I had a couple of bleeps on the middle rod, I ran down to the rod, trying to avoid the millions of little frogs that the recent rain had brought out. The line was coming of the spool at sporadic intervals, in a typically pike-like fashion, I closed the bale arm and struck, and about 2 min. later I was netting the scourge of the catfishing world - a small jack pike of about 3lb. About half an hour later I was ready to cast in again, after re-tying another hook-link. I cast back to the same spot again with a double gudgeon live-bait, and sat back to await feeding time.

It was now dark, and on this water, unlike most, the catfish are normally at their most active in the early night, between 11pm and 1am. At 10.30pm it became evident that I would have to sink my rod tips, because the many little bats on the water kept hitting my lines. I was re-positioning my rods, which involved moving the pod down the raised bank and on to the muddy, slippery cut-out below, as I was finishing putting the monkeys back on, I switched the Delkims back on, and immediately the right hand one burst into life. Being a bit thick I looked down to see if I had some how caught the line, or if a bat had picked it up, or something. When I finely worked out that it was a run, which in reality was only a second or two, I picked the rod up, closed the bale arm and struck, all in one fluid motion. I felt a fish pulling on the other end, and knew it was a cat straight away, because of the tell-tale twisting and flapping on the line, and after and uneventful 5 min fight, a nice, previously uncaught, double was in the net. After unhooking and recording a weight of 12.08, I put the fish in a tube until the morning, as I was the only person on the whole complex, so photos would have to wait. I Put a fresh perch on and recast to the same spot, and put another 6 or 7 sandeel segments around the spot.

I retired to the brolly as it had started drizzling again, and I was wet through, mostly through sweating because it was so hot. Then the lightning and thunder started, and mother nature gave a spectacular display against the black cloud-ridden sky. At 2am I had screaming run on the middle rod, the rain had eased off and with the fresh smell of ozone in the air, I connected with another hard-fighting cat, and after several long determined runs, and a few tense moments when the fish got weeded, I soon had another scraper double in the net. This fish went 10.08. As I was putting it in a tube, I had a fast run on the left hand rod, I struck and briefly connected with a fish, but after a few seconds the hook came out, and all I reeled in was a couple of mauled sandeels, (Probably hooked one in the teeth), I wasn't disappointed as I had a brace of doubles already, which is a rare sight indeed.

I re-baited both rods and cast them out, and retired to the brolly, I must have fallen asleep because I was awoken at 3am by a twitchy take on the right hand rod, when I got down there I realised it wasn't a fish, but Harry, the marauding hedgehog who had stumbled into my monkey, I picked him up and put him 50 yards down the bank, but to no avail. About 60 seconds later, he was back, causing havoc in my sandeel bag, only after bribing him with three juicy sandeels did he finally leave me alone. After checking the catfish were alright in the tubes, I returned to the comfort of my bed chair. I'd just sat down when I had a twitchy take on the left hand rod, with the monkey just rising up the needle and dropping again, it was the sort of take that you normally miss and put down to eels. I waited until the monkey was on an up-ward movement then engaged the bale arm, and struck, the strike met with very solid resistance, and I leaned into the fish hard, at which point the cat hit the surface about 15 yards out, then ran off down the margin. There was a tree to my left and it was a bit too tall to get the rod over it, so I waded out into the deep margins, to get a better angle on the fish. By now the fish had run about 50 yards and was splashing under the branches of an overhanging willow, all I could do was to keep steady pressure on the fish, and hope it didn't get caught in the mass of tree roots below. Luckily, after a bit of persuasion, she started to come back towards me, this fish obviously liked the surface, as when she came in front of me, she started tail walking, before starting another long run back to the willow again. Eventually after approx. 20min I managed to net her successfully. Looking into the net I realised I had caught a nice upper double. As I was unhooking her I realised how fat she looked, most of the fish in this water are fat but this one was positively obese. On the scales she went 20.08, I was over the moon, an uncaught twenty, a new water record by 6lb, and a trio of doubles in one night. I put her in a tube until morning.

As it was getting light about 4.30 I had another run, on the middle rod, but this time the fish had dropped it before I got to the rod, which was a bit of a relief actually, as I had no more catfish tubes left anyway, NOBODY carries more than 3!. I packed up at 7am, and went to find someone to take the photos. After the fish had calmed down, and stopped grunting, I cleaned away the pike sections, bleak and sandeels that had been coughed-up, and we photographed the fish in every conceivable combination. I put them back and watched them waddle away, and wondered if I would ever have such a successful night again.